“Looks like it’s about time.” Rine said as he eyed the sun’s position in the sky. He was at the western gate of Phentar, where he had agreed to meet with Silva. Outside the gate was Phentar’s forest, which was a great place for apprentice warriors and magicians to train. The outer perimeters were relatively safe and any 2nd-grade magician or low-rank warrior would be able to handle the monsters there just fine. As such, schools and guilds would often send the greens into the forest to gain experience.

Rine observed his surroundings and watched the ambitious youths as they prepared their gears and sharpened their blades.

‘I am also going on an adventure.’ He thought silently.

Next to the gate itself, guards stood on either side. They were dressed in armor emblazoned with Phentar’s logo, which was a wolf’s head above two crossed swords and a green background. Rine recalled his grandfather’s trivia regarding national logos, the background color signified the palace that governed the logo. ‘Green means that Phentar falls under the wind palace’s jurisdiction.’ Rine did not understand what that fully entailed, but he was sure he’d learn about that when he started going to Shadewood.

Rine continued to walk around as he searched for Silva. The search did not take long, as moments later he found the familiar silver-headed warrior standing with a group of people. Rine studied the group as he approached them. There were four other warriors who dressed similarly to Silva.

‘The uniform of their guild.’ Rine guessed.

As he neared them, Silva seemed to have noticed him as he turned towards him with a smile.

“Right on time, Rine my boy.”

“Hey there, Mister Silva.”

“It’s captain Silva during this mission, kiddo.”

“Got it, captain.” Rine said with a smile.

“So is this one of the porters you’ve picked up captain?” A female voice said as she approached Silva.

She was about the same height as Silva, and she was a brunette. Her skin glowed with a healthy tan, and her muscles, while not overly large, were toned and looked like they contained immense strength. Overall, she was a very pretty woman, but Rine made sure not to underestimate her as he saw a massive sword hanging off her back.

Rine snapped out of his daze and said “Nice to meet you, I’m Rine and…” He puffed his chest out a little. “And I am an apprentice magician of Shadewood.”

“Oh… an apprentice magician?” She said with a teasing smile. “I’m Cinder, and Silva here has told me all about you, nice to meet you.”

As Rine gazed at the woman’s blazing red eyes, he thought her name was quite fitting. But after a moment he realized the meaning behind her words. Rine’s cheeks flushed slightly as he began to stammer. “Well, it’s true that I did fail this time, but I assure you that it was just a small mistake…” He kept on muttering.

“Geez, Cinder give the kid a break.” Another voice interrupted them. The voice belonged to another warrior, this one a male who was just a bit shorter than Silva. This warrior was much more muscular, and his weapon seemed to be a large shield.

“Yeah, yeah I agree with Rock. Big sis teases the new recruits too much.” A female voice sounded. Rine saw two women approach. ‘Twins?’ he thought as he watched them. By the quivers each one had on their backs, Rine guessed that they were the group’s archers.

“Yeah, sis remember when big sis used to tease us when we first got here?”

“Used to? She still does.”

“Oi, oi you two, weren’t you supposed to be packing the equipment up?” Cinder interjected between the sisters’ conversation.

“How cruel. You wish to leave us out of the fun?” One of the sisters said while weeping.

“There, there she didn’t mean to.” Her sister comforted

“Oh please, no one believes your shit no more girls.” Rock laughed.

Rine watched the raucous scene with a slight smile on his face. Either way, he was happy that the conversation no longer focused on him. ‘Thank Aria’

As the group continued to bicker among themselves, the previously silent Silva began to clap his hands.

“All right guys let’s cut the chit chat.” He spoke in a formal tone.

The group stopped talking, and Rine wondered what this was about.

“As you know, I took the liberty of hiring three porters to carry our equipment. Now that one of them has arrived allow me to formally introduce him.” He signaled with his eyes towards Rine, who stepped up nervously.

“This here is Rine, an apprentice magician from Shadewood.” His tone suddenly shifted into one of bemusement.

Rine lowered his head embarrassment. “Soon to be..” He said in a small voice.

Laughter erupted once more.

“Wow, a magician? Can you show us a spell?” One of the twins spoke with genuine excitement.

“Little girl, don’t pressure the man, you heard how he failed this year’s test right? Let it go.” Rock rebutted.

“Everyone fails the test the first time, no problem with that.” The other sister remarked.

As Rine listened to their murmurings, his face grew hotter. He wondered whether this job was really worth the 50 Reds.

As the warriors resumed their bickering, a robed individual approached them.

“Captain Silva, as you know we are running on a tight schedule. How much longer must we wait here?” A prim and cold voice came from beneath the robe.

It was only now that Rine realized that three individuals with long robes and hooded faces stood close to the group of warriors. As Rine observed the three, he noted the gold trimmings around their uniforms, and he could feel slight origin energy fluctuating around the shortest of them. ‘Magicians? He thought with sparkling eyes.’

“Lady Triste, do not worry I’m sure the others will be here shortly.” Silva’s tone was respectful, yet cold.

“Your guild recommended you as an escort team, so I assumed a certain level of professionalism. Looks like I was wrong.”

“Sorry to disappoint, now if you’ll excuse me, my team has some preparing to do-”

The hooded figure turned around to leave before Silva finished speaking.

“What a bitch.” A sister said.

“Yeah yeah.” Her twin agreed.

“For once we agree, girls.” Rock said while restraining his anger.

“What was that about?” Rine asked.

Silva sighed.

“Don’t worry about it.” Cinder said, addressing everyone. “You all know what magicians are like. They are all fond of storing their wands up their asses.”

The group broke into laughter.

“Cinder” Silva sounded stern. “You know full well how good a wind magician’s hearing is.”

“I don’t give a damn if she does hear me.” She said lightly.

“Are they really all like that?” Having only seen one magician before this encounter, Rine couldn’t help but wonder if pride was part of a magician’s training.

“How would I know, it’s not like I get a chance to meddle with a lot of magicians.” Cinder replied “But I’ll tell you what. People talk a lot about how arrogant they are, and while there might be a chance they are all wrong, there’s no smoke without fire.”

Rine nodded while studying the three magicians.

“Don’t worry about it too much, kid. Just keep your head on and you’ll be much better than them.” Silva advised. “Now go with Cinder and help her pack our equipment.” He then added after seeing her pout. “As punishment for your words earlier.”

Cinder sighed. “Fine.”

Rine followed her as they made their way to the equipment. Along the way, he couldn’t help but peek at the magicians.

“I’ll never be like you.” He muttered beneath his breath.

But soon he turned his head away as he saw one of them turn towards his direction.

His hands grew sweaty.

                                                                                                …………………………………………

Cort watched the burning corpse as he fiddled with the communications device in his hands. Ever since he turned it on, he heard nothing but static. His phone proved equally as useless as it had no bars.

Throwing the phone away in frustration, he turned back towards the corpse. Interestingly enough, the guardian’s armor did not react with the fire and it maintained its shape.

‘I am going to have to bury that.’ He thought mildly.

Cort soothed himself as he felt the cold forest breeze against his face.

Raising his hand to stroke a spot behind his neck, he reminisced about the past.

It was during the fourth year of his life that he first came into contact with Root. At the time he was living a decent life at the orphanage, as he often frolicked around with the other kids. His life was simple, yet joyful. Every now and again, a friend would leave them, but there was always someone to take their place.

Suddenly, on a day that seemed just as ordinary as the rest, a visitor had come. He wore the typical suite that men who meant business wore. By his hip, he carried a gun, and to complete the look, he wore sunglasses despite the overcast weather.

It was only years later that Cort learned of how inexperienced that agent had been. In fact, it was later that he also discovered how half-assed the entire operation had been.

Root was an organization run by fanatics. The various heads of the organization believed that the end of the world as we know it was coming and they predicted the fall of nations and the deaths of millions, if not billions. Because of this, the Organization started to immerse itself within the world of the occult. Talismans, spells, hymns…Whatever they could get their hands on. Of course, most of these proved useless, keyword most.

But until here, one would think of Root as just some cult led by very charismatic leaders. Problem is, Root was right.

About six years before Root started operation “Homegrown”, a storm raged around the world. Nuclear weapons grew inactive and were reduced to mere decorations, of course, all the powers concerned with such news kept it under tight wraps and attempted to rebuild what they had lost. But soon after the incident, a group of international terrorists calling themselves “The kingdom” Began to wantonly massacre large groups of people. Of course, they were met with military opposition, but with their completely bulletproof armors and inhumane strength, they carved their way through the masses.

Soon, people began to ask for the weapons they once feared. But alas their cries went unmet.

During this time, many organizations began to reveal themselves as either enemies or allies to “The kingdom”.

Root kept its mouth shut during such times.

Rather than involve themselves with such matters, they simply opted to just grow themselves in strength. And it was in this desire that the completely idiotic idea to “Grow” perfect warriors originated.

Six years later and a severely green agent attempted to coax a bunch of children into following him obediently.

‘And we, like the children that we were, believed every single word.’

Over the next 13 years, children from orphanages around the world were subjected to horrors under the guise of improvement. They were beaten, tortured, and even experimented on. And surprisingly, despite the sheer stupidity of the idea, Root got what it wanted. And no better representation of their ideals could be found than with Cort, Earth’s strongest lap dog.

His expression was that of self-ridicule as his fingers passed over a small, undetectable bump under his skin.

‘The chips were relatively new.’

They came as a result of countless attempts at mutiny, of course, none of them perpetrated by Cort or his team, and they were affectionately called dog tags. A small tracking device coupled with an even smaller bomb made them more akin to a leash.

Cort sneered angrily. And continued to watch the flames dance with the wind.

It was this little device that perplexed him the most, by all rights he should be dead by now, yet here he was, still contemplating the meaning of his existence.

After a long while, he stopped thinking about it ‘For all I know Root could very well be dead.’

The kingdom was a scary foe, were it not for the newly developed bullets Cort would have died long before he breached its perimeter.

Removing a bullet from his handgun, he held it close to his face and observed it.

All along the bullet certain engravings were etched into its body, but rather than call it beautiful it was more sinister looking. Especially so under the fire’s light where the shadows made the engravings look deeper than they were.

“I’m getting sidetracked.” He said in a quiet voice.

He stood up and began to gather what he needed. After reapplying his bandages and strapping on his bag, he took one final look at the guardian’s corpse and decided that burying it would be pointless.

“Now what?” He said to himself as he stared at the forest.

                                                                                                  …………………………………………